There is no equivalence

Share this story

Here’s a simple exercise in basic reasoning. On a spectrum of bad things to do, theft is bad, assault is worse and murder is worst. There’s a similar texture of ill will connecting all three crimes, but only a very confused conscience would equate thieving and homicide. Both are serious matters. But there is no equivalence.

The deliberate killing of innocent life is a uniquely wicked act. No amount of contextualizing or deflecting our attention to other issues can obscure that.

This is precisely why Cardinal John O’Connor, Bishop James McHugh and others pressed so hard for the passage of the U.S. bishops’ 1998 pastoral letter, Living the Gospel of Life. As Cardinal Joseph Bernardin once wisely noted, Catholic social teaching is a seamless garment of respect for human life, from conception to natural death. It makes no sense to champion the cause of unborn children if we ignore their basic needs once they’re born.

Thus it’s no surprise that — year in and year out — nearly all Catholic dioceses in the United States, including Philadelphia, devote far more time, personnel and material resources to providing social services to the poor and education to young people than to opposing abortion.

But of course, children need to survive the womb before they can have needs like food, shelter, immigration counseling and good health care. Humanity’s priority right — the one that undergirds all other rights — is the right to life. As the American bishops wrote in 1998:

“Opposition to abortion and euthanasia does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from poverty, violence and injustice. Any politics of human life must work to resist the violence of war and the scandal of capital punishment. Any politics of human dignity must seriously address issues of racism, poverty, hunger, employment, education, housing, and health care … But being ‘right’ in such matters can never excuse a wrong choice regarding direct attacks on innocent human life. Indeed, the failure to protect and defend life in its most vulnerable stages renders suspect any claims to the ‘rightness’ of positions in other matters affecting the poorest and least powerful of the human community. If we understand the human person as the ‘temple of the Holy Spirit’ — the living house of God — then these latter issues fall logically into place as the crossbeams and walls of that house. All direct attacks on innocent human life, such as abortion and euthanasia, strike at the house’s foundation. These directly and immediately violate the human person’s most fundamental right — the right to life. Neglect of these issues is the equivalent of building our house on sand. Such attacks cannot help but lull the social conscience in ways ultimately destructive of other human rights” (22).

A case is sometimes made that abortion is mainly a cultural and moral issue, and politics is a poor solution to the problem. The curious thing is that some of the same voices that argue against political action on the abortion issue seem quite comfortable urging vigorous political engagement on issues like health care, homelessness and the environment.

In practice, politics is the application of moral conviction to public discourse and the process of lawmaking. Law not only constrains and defends; it also teaches and forms. Law not only reflects culture; it shapes and reshapes it. That’s why Christians can’t avoid political engagement. Politics is never the main content of Christian faith. It can never provide perfect solutions. But no Christian can avoid the duty to work for more justice and charity in our life as a nation, a task that inescapably involves politics.

Thus the recent Senate vote to defund Planned Parenthood was not only right and timely, but necessary. And the failure of that measure involves a public failure of character by every Catholic senator who voted against it.

Memory is important: Two years ago Kermit Gosnell was stripped of his medical license and convicted of murdering three infants born alive from abortion procedures. He operated a Philadelphia abortion center that more closely resembled a butcher shop than a medical clinic.

His clinic environment was uglier than the pleasant restaurants and offices captured on recent Center for Medical Progress (CMP) undercover videos. Those videos show a face of Planned Parenthood — senior staffers chatting blithely about the dismemberment and sale of fetal body parts — that can only be called repugnant. But it’s not surprising: If aborted children are simply lumps of potentially useful (and profitable) tissue, what’s the problem?

Again, memory is important: Thirty years ago “pro-choice” groups tried a strategy of using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act to shut down certain forms of pro-life witness. The strategy ultimately failed but — maybe it’s God’s sense of irony — the word “racket” very quickly comes to mind in watching Planned Parenthood staff on the CMP videos.

I’ll close with a word of thanks to Ruben Navarette, Jr. Navarette is a veteran “pro-choice” voice, but his August 10 column at the Daily Beast is worth reading and sharing for its honest revulsion at the whole, ugly, system-wide barbarism of Planned Parenthood’s fetal trafficking. And his column’s best lines come in quoting his pro-life wife:

“Those are babies that are being killed. Millions of them. And you need to use your voice to protect them. That’s what a man does. He protects children — his own children, and other children. That’s what it means to be a man.”

Catholic or Protestant – no follower of Jesus Christ and believer in the Biblical authority – could possibly find any moral or spiritual justification for abortion. “Christians” or “Catholics” who trump this moral absolute with their political loyalites are placing politics and social worldview above Biblical truth. Protestant or Catholic, Liberal or Conservative, Republican or Democrat, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ and the truths of God’s Word, then a stance supporting abortion cannot be justified within the faith you proclaim. For those within the faith who would claim otherwise, look only to the words of Jesus, in speaking of those who killed one who was innocent – “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I’d steer clear of invoking Bernardin’s “seamless garment theory”; which has been hijacked by dissidents/socialists within the Church and created great confusion and harm, not unlike many of Pope Francis’ poorly expressed extemporaneous comments which Father Lombardi must clarify and explain what the Pontiff really meant to say to the press in the days following their utterance.

However, I do hope that Archbishop Chaput has the opportunity to edify Archbishop Cupich in the coming weeks on the sanctity of life in the womb and how that the right to life trumps all others.

To Lauretta Stanley. Please see my comments to Irene. There is a huge moral difference between works of mercy and saving souls. Both are necessary but only one is critical to everlasting life. The Church is choosing works of mercy over getting people to heaven and fighting tooth and nail against the forces of evilness. That is a self evident fact. If the Church was spending half the time, money, and effort that it is expending on its social and economic justice programs, including taking firm action against all of the Catholic high profile politicians who are openly and actively supporting abortion, we would by now have had Roe v Wade overturned or legislated out of existence. What is more important. acts of corporal mercy or eliminating the largest slaughter of innocent humans that the world has ever seen. Over 26 million viciously murdered babies in the US alone since Roe v Wade. It is time for Catholic laity to respectfully start pushing their Bishops to start leading from the front lines instead of laying back and paying lip service from the rear guard. Isn’t that what Jesus would expect. Isn’t that what His Apostles did? What is the difference between then and now?

First let me say that I have the utmost admiration for Archbishop Chaput and as you can see from my original post I thought his article was great.

My reference to Cardinal Bernadin was meant to go beyond Archbishop’s Chaput’s article on abortion and the deliberate killing of human life, which I totally agree with, and to further discuss the issue of moral equivalence and to point out what I see as a major problem in today’s Church and one that was caused by Cardinal Bernadin’s seamless garment thesis. That fighting intrinsic evilness and fighting poverty are moral equivalents at the Church level. They are not. Abortion is an intrinsic evil and a moral imperative for the Church to fight, poverty is not an intrinsic evil but rather a condition of society. As such it is not a moral imperative for the Church as an institution and it should not be replacing the real moral imperative for the Church which is to fight evil and save souls.

I would refer you to the following remarks made at the 2013 annual meeting of the Pontifical Academy for Life by Archbishop Gerhard Müller the prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: [T]he “seamless garment” image was used to great effect to root the Church’s response to various moral issues—from nuclear proliferation to poverty—within the overarching teaching on the sanctity of human life, from natural conception to natural death. Unfortunately, however, it is also true that the image of the “seamless garment” has been used by some theologians and Catholic politicians, in an intellectually dishonest manner, to allow or at least to justify turning a blind eye to instances of abortion, contraception, or public funding for embryonic stem cell research, as long as these were simultaneously accompanied by opposition to the death penalty or promotion of economic development for the poor.

It is interesting to note that that Cardinal Bernardin’s introduction of the seamless garment concept in March of 1984 was followed in September of that same year by Mario Cuomo’s infamous Notre Dame speech that established the vocabulary of Catholic political dissent on abortion that we still hear today. A mere coincidence? I think not.

There is no doubt that Jesus expected His Apostles (and us) to help the poor and needy. Today we would call that charity, which comes from the individual heart. The keyword is individual, you, me, and all people of good will. As an institution the Church also champions many social and economic justice programs, but that is not its prime directive as an institution. That is my point. We as individuals are to follow the Gospel and to be charitable. The Church as an institution is here to help us follow the Gospel message and to get us to heaven. This difference is significant because the Church today has superseded its primary function as an institution (of fighting evil and saving souls) with myriad social and economic justice programs which have nothing to do with making the people who are being helped more holy and closer to gaining everlasting life. That is why our pulpits are silent on evilness, sin, and the consequences of sin – hell.

As to your question of hell and heaven, all I can say is that Jesus talked a lot about the reality of hell even more than He talked about heaven. For example He warned, “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). The Bible speaks of hell as a place of absolute loneliness and despair and hopelessness. It calls it a place of “darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13). Some other passages, Matthew 13:41-42, 49-50 “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Mark 9:43, 48-49 “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire…where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire.” Matthew 25:46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Luke 16:23 “being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” Luke 12:5 “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

I think it is important, though, to emphasize that the Gospel call to serve the poor and marginalized is not only an individual pursuit. As I’m sure you know, it is established Catholic social teaching that government and society have important obligations as well in this area.

We all understand our personal, individual obligation to serve the least of these; the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has very helpful information on Church teaching regarding society’s collective obligation in this area.

Hello Irene. Yes I am well aware of Catholic social teaching. However this is not the Church’s prime directive. Fighting evil and saving souls is. Governments and society don’t have morals so any spiritual dependency on these very imperfect institutions is almost certain to go wrong. More importantly governments and society, because they have no Catholic morals, are no friends of Catholicism and most of them end up as moral enemies with their sanction and support evilness including intrinsic evilness. For the Catholic Church to outsource its social and economic responsibilities to unholy and politically motivated governments or society is an abdication of the institutional duty of the Church. For the Catholic Church to embrace intrinsically evil governments or societies (or political parties like Democrats) for the sake of acceptability and a seat at the table so as to gain funding for social justice programs that have anti Catholic strings attached is a violation of the moral integrity of the Church. Can you imagine Jesus Christ being worried about being accepted by governments or society? Would Jesus compromise his Word for the sake of societal acceptability? Would Jesus be funding His Good Works from Caesar via a quid pro quo arrangement? Would Jesus ever consider asking for a seat at Caesar’s table? The USCCB has become a secularized bureaucracy under the false notion that it needs to compromise Catholic principles in order to be accepted and gain influence so as to accomplish Catholic goals. As one good Catholic to another good Catholic, I ask you, how has this strategy been working out for our beloved Church in the USA?

First, thank you to Archbishop Chaput for his excellent column. I also found the posted comments interesting to a point. And I do have a few comments of my own to add.
For years I have observed many pro-lifers that I know personally, bravely standing up for the rights of the unborn; however, I’ve seen these same people criticize such programs as free lunches in schools! My comment to them has always been, “So, you want them to be born, but you don’t want to feed them?” I don’t think the pro-life issue is purely a political one; it is a moral one. It is not a Democrat or Republican issue. Neither party has done the right thing. I do not know the number of Christians in the house and senate, or at least those who consider themselves Christians. I would guess that there is a large majority. Where are they? Many politicians today are more focused on fighting the other party than on doing what is right. Pro-life is a package deal. Life begins at conception but does not end at birth!
Further, I must remind Mr. Guidotti of the Corporal Works of Mercy. Throughout his public ministry we find examples of Christ reaching out, meeting human (both spiritual and physical) needs.

The fact that most pro-abortion Catholic politicians are allowed to receive communion publicly rather than being reprimanded and urged to repent their public promotion of this crime against humanity is a sign that the politics of convenience is trumping Catholic teaching in the practice of many bishops and priests. Catholikc teaching is clear, Canon law is clear, but the actions of many Church leaders speak louder. They say, “You can promote murder and still present yourself in public and in Church as a good Catholic.”

“LET’S ROLL!!” —- Todd Beamer’s last known words on 9/11, as he led others to stop killers!!
There are small small children scheduled to die each week in our area.
Planned Parenthood has been exposed in this past month by “those videos”
to be the scoundrels that they are…. Won’t you come to Stand as a Witness??
There will be Many Other Prolife People of Good Will THIS SATURDAY (and every single Saturday actually)
Make your first time doing this a pilgrimage of penance with your friends.
Yes it is Early. Yes you must pinch yourself a bit to get up and go out.
But it’s not snowing, it’s not like you’re running for your life from ISIS.
You should really really consider (if you don’t have a previous event planned)
to Re-Arrange Your Life to Speak for Those Who Can’t Speak!
JOIN US AND 100’s of Others!! We have been praying outside of these local abortuaries for decades. This is a peaceful, prayerful, rosary centered witness.
Let’s Do This. 7:00 am Mass at St. John the Evangelist (13th & Market) 8:00 Rosary Prayer Walk
to Planned Parenthood (@ 12th & Locust, Philadelphia, PA

Archbishop Chaput,
You have been an inspiration and guide in the pro-life movement. Your strong stand against abortion, euthanasia and the culture of death has been a guiding light to all peoples [all of God’s children].

There is no doubt that on a spectrum of bad things, an intrinsic evil such as abortion (murder) stands as the most heinous of evils, and far outweighs other less bad things such theft or assault. Morally abortion (murder) leads to mortal sin and everlasting hell (if not repented), while the other lesser bads such as theft or assault lead to lesser (venial) sin and finite punishment in purgatory. In other words there is no moral equivalency when comparing mortal sin to venial sin.

However there is another side to this moral equation around abortion (and other intrinsic evils) which I believe the Church is misguided. It concerns the referenced proposition by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin that “Catholic social teaching is a seamless garment of respect for human life, from conception to natural death. It makes no sense to champion the cause of unborn children if we ignore their basic needs once they’re born.” In other words Catholic social teaching (i.e. social justice programs) are equal but opposite moral equivalents to intrinsic evils such as abortion. That social justice programs are just as morally important as saving unborn babies from abortion.

This is pure moral nonsense and perverted logic since saving the lives of the unborn is spiritual and heavenly while providing for their basic needs growing up is secular and earthly. One seeks everlasting life while the other seeks temporary physical and economic improvements. The same distinction applies to the disenfranchised and the poor.

For example a Bishop’s primary responsibility is to protect and defend his flock. He is like a field general who must decide how to position and utilize his battle forces. In this scenario the general is faced with coming to the aid of two towns. The first town is under siege from intrinsic evilness and tens of thousands of its babies are being slaughtered daily. It is a bloodbath. The second town is suffering from substandard living conditions and its food supply is sparse and people are going to bed hungry. It’s been that way for years. Which town do you think the general will decide is more important and in immediate need of being rescued? The self evident answer is the first town where the slaughter is happening.

Today’s Church has lost sight of its prime directive. That it was founded by Jesus Christ for the sole purpose of fighting evil and saving souls. Jesus did not commission His Apostles to go forth and eliminate poverty and economic injustice worldwide, however well meaning. His main goal was salvation and there is no relationship between social and economic well being and an individual’s holiness and likelihood of being saved. Just the opposite based on the dire moral condition of Western society.

Not sure you’ve got it right that Jesus didn’t want his Apostles (and us) to go forth and eliminate poverty. I’m no theologian, but I’ve always found it very interesting that the only time we hear Jesus say outright in the Gospels whether we’ll go to Heaven or Hell for our actions/inactions is in Matthew, when talking about Judgement Day He says:

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’

Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’

And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

Dear D. Guidotti,
I believe perhaps you need to re-read what his Eminence, Archbishop Chaput, has written here. He has eloquently clarified what Cardinal Bernardin stated many years ago. God bless you!

Laura, Archbishop Chaput has written a beautiful article explaining the true seamless garment (i.e., that anyone who truly loves God will not only fight for the right to life for the unborn but they will assist their neighbor as well and that we must eliminate the unjust law allowing abortion at all costs unless there is an equivalent evil or combination of evils to consider – which there isn’t at this time). However, those that support the party of death will not comprehend this message (read the long reply above for an example). They need to be told directly like a 2nd grader. You have to turn the sentence around: “Opposition to poverty, violence and injustice does not excuse indifference to those who suffer from abortion and euthanasia.”

“I am saying that you need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.” Bishop Paprocki

“There are no ‘truly grave moral’ or ‘proportionate’ reasons, singularly or combined that could outweigh the millions of innocent human lives that are directly killed by abortion each year.” Bishops Farrell & Vann

I think it is wonderful that the Catholic Church in the US is taking leadership in urging the abolition of the death penalty here. I think we’re now the only country in the Western Hemisphere that continues this barbaric practice.

I also think its amazing that Pope Francs is reminding us we that we cant forget about people in prison. Sometimes, prison conditions themselves end up being a death penalty for people, a terrible problem that we need to address.

This is beautifully explained, Your Excellency. I hope you don’t mind if I quote you. I hope our good priests are encouraged to spread this message from the pulpits. We truly are a flock of sheep, wandering around in search of the truth, and we need our shepherds to guide and encourage us, and show us where to find the truth. God bless you!

David Easton defined politics much as does His Eminence, “the authoriative allocation of values.” It is incumbent upon us as Catholic Christians to be involved and informed as we particpate in public life. The NCCB provides us with guidance in regards to our participation. I accept the teachings of the Church on the sanctity of life but, politics is an imperfect means towards the end of accomplishing the cultivation and maintenance of a true culture of life here in America. If we, as Catholic Christians take the steps many deem necessary to preserve life solely in a political sense we will force others to conform to our beliefs, not adopt or accept them as their own. In addition, Catholic Christians remain an opportunity for exploitation by those not truly committed to a culture of life whose political words may give comfort but whose political acts are inconsistent with a culture of life.

In Missouri where I live, there were increases in Medicaid funding, prenatal care and infant care and abortions went down by double digit percentages. The increases were passed and signed into law by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. Later, Republicans gained control of government and passed cruel cuts in all the aids passed into law by Democrats. The Republican cuts were passed without a Democratic sponsored amendment which would have re-instated funding if abortions went up in Missouri. Later a Special Session on abortion issues was called by the GOP governor and a Democratic effort to get a vote on a ban on abortions was ruled “not germaine” by the Republican leadership when all that would have been necessary was for the Governor to say it was OK. Democratic Governor Nixon did that recently when the GOP Legislature passed legislation outside of his call for the Special Session on tax credits.

When the Republicans had control of the US House, US Senate and an ostensibly Pro-Life President in George W. Bush, all they could muster was a majority but losing vote to pass a US Consitutional ban on same sex marriage as the same issues were put on ballots around the country by Republicans to boost turnout and throw out Democrats. No abortion ban was proposed by President Bush, the GOP controlled House or the GOP controlled Senate because they all knew they could not get all the Republicans to back such a proposal much less a super majority needed to pass such an amendment out of both chambers.

Republicans have gotten us into six undeclared and unfunded wars since 1980 and the Iraq war was condemned by the Catholic Bishops and His Holiness as “unjust.” Republicans supported torture, and still are unrepentantly doing so in violation of Church teaching. Republicans support the expansion of the death penalty, contrary to Church teaching. Republicans even support executing children and the mentally retarded. The Supreme Court stopped Republican executions of children and the mentally retarded. Republicans supported embryonic stem cell research under President Bush and continue to do so.

Republicans opposed healthcare reform, raising the minimum wage, pay equality, easier union elections, tax breaks for the Middle Class and working poor and oppose expanded Medicaid funding in states which, according to a Harvard University study, will result in some 7,500-15,000 additional deaths of innocents each year in states which refuse to expand Medicaid.

If we faithful ensure government gives all the support becessary to expecting mothers for them to choose life either as a mother or adoption, do we not accomplish more by changing hearts and minds to reject some options and to promote a culture of life? It is clear from which of the major politcal parties such an approach is possible as it has already been implemented and later overturned by Republicans after great success. My informed conscience tells me to reject the false promises of Republicans and to seek to continue to change hearts and minds and implement polices to create and maintain a culture of life in America as a supporter of Democratic candidates.

Tim, your comments sound like they were written by a Democratic Party publicist. A similar list of crimes against justice and common sense could be compiled against the Democrats, but that’s not the point. If you believe in the goodness of the Democratic Party, fair enough — good people can disagree; but what are you doing to change its catastrophic record on abortion? If Catholic Democratic senators can’t find the minimal spine to vote to defund PP in an appalling situation like chopping up and selling unborn human body parts, what does their being “Catholic” mean, if anything?

“Republicans even support the execution of children and the mentally retarded”. What a bold face lie that is. I, as a life long republican, and most of my friends (republican leaning as well) have never considered such a thing, yet you brazenly say “Republicans support the execution of children and the mentally retarded” Only a tiny minded, abortion supporting liberal could ever believe such garbage.